So I’ve written before about how I use Google Voiceto mess with SasquatchWells Fargo. Well there’s an even better use for this great service and it has to do with record keeping. More and more these days some of my tenants feel the need to send me text messages for things like maintenance requests and general questions. Normally this would not work for me due to the fact that I would need to transcribe the text messages from my cell phone to some form of log so I could keep a record of the conversation.

With Google Voice, you can get a phone number in one of many area-codes, anywhere in the United States. Once you get a number assigned, you can set up multiple other phones to work with the service. Using Google Voice, you can place and receive phone calls and receive voicemail, which is nicely transcribed (sometimes accurately) for you and stored online within your Google Voice dashboard. The great thing however, is that Google Voice keeps a record of text-message conversations in the same dashboard.

Google is sometimes lambasted by privacy advocates for storing all information about how you use their products….forever. This sounds ominous until you find yourself in court with the tenant above and conveniently you have a complete log of all the text messages, voice messages, placed calls and received calls all printed out and ready for the judge.

Great tip. I have a property management business in Prague and I have always tried to allow the tenants to communicate with us in the manner that they chose. It is true though, that you need to be able to have written record of certain things (like maintenance requests, terminations of contracts, etc.) and we have struggled with how to do this. Google Voice sounds like a good idea. Nathan